A little knitting in the cold . . .

. . .
It was so cold here this last weekend, and the girls had both Monday and Tuesday off from school, so we headed south to the beach. It was cold there too, but not nearly as cold. We were able to get out and take walks on the beach and even sit poolside in the sun comfortably in shirt sleeves for a while. But it wasn't hot there, and so we spent a lot of time in the house and I got a lot of knitting done.

I did knit on the red and black norwegian sweater, but I'm at or near the point where I need to start the steeks. That means I need to make a decision as to how I plan to do the sleeves - either pick up stitches on the completed sweater body and knit them down from the top or knit them and sew them to the body. If I do them top down, I can just keep knitting to where I think they need to start and then start the steeks. If I do them bottom up, I need to knit them now so I know how wide the tops are and how big the steeks need to be. It always takes me a few days to actually make the decision and do whatever calculations are necessary before I can move forward.

Meanwhile, I decided that before I make my own Elizabeth Zimmermann ribwarmer from that lovely purple Brooks Farm yarn, I should try a smaller one to see how they work. So, I found this Baby Bear Ribwarmer pattern through Ravelry (http://babysurprise0.tripod.com/id21.html) and followed the directions exactly to see how it works. It's simple, easy and ingenious. And now the Monkey has his own little vest. (I didn't have any contrasting worsted weight yarn with me to do the I-cord edging so it may or may not get added later.)



And, I started on the Monteray socks for that daughter of mine. They seem to be a quick knit, but I'm not letting them fool me yet because I know there will be a good bit of finishing given the way they are made. We'll see if I ever finish them.


And just for grins, this is what the girls ate for breakfast at the beach:

I was astounded to find them eating open-faced cereal sandwiches! Yes, that's a piece of bread slathered with a thick layer of Nutella and then covered with cereal flakes. Can you say 'eewwwwe'?


And this little plant has been blooming in the greenhouse - second flower on it. Unfortunately, I also discovered that some eggs or caterpillars also came in with the plants. I found two perfectly beautiful but totally dead butterflies on the floor today when I went in to water the plants. I hope there are no more eggs, caterpillars or chrysalis out there.